For heaven's sake! Regulation stiffels progress. My roaster would be banned in 8 countries, but itwill roast more coffee, in less time, using a lot less energy than anything mentioned in this thread,so far, including your Hottop and Behmor..

I'm following this thread because I'm interested in the heating watt/gram equations for various electric roasting methods. The Quest is a very nice model of a classic drum roaster. I believe, unlike a fluid-bed roaster, it's watt/gram does not change much as larger loads are introduced. It would be very informative, for me, if the ambient temperatures were part of the information.

I'm sorry if I do get upset when some 'regulator' tries to high-jack a thread. Before retirement, I ushered several products through the maze of CE, UL, City of LA Medical, Japan Medical, Lake County IL., and etc.It is my conclusion: 'you pay the money and you get the sticker'.....or in the Queen's English:graft..

I'm following this thread because I'm interested in the heating watt/gram equations for various electric roasting methods. The Quest is a very nice model of a classic drum roaster. I believe, unlike a fluid-bed roaster, it's watt/gram does not change much as larger loads are introduced. It would be very informative, for me, if the ambient temperatures were part of the information.

What do you mean by ambient temp? ET or room temp? My room temp is always 22C.

I did another roast this morning. I used 225g this time and 10A (1200W). I expected the roast to be slower than last time with 150g and 1050W, but in fact it went too fast. It took only 11 minutes this time,or 1.5 minutes faster. Seems I went to high with the amps for this 225g and I'll attempt it again next time with 9.3A (1120W) and see how it goes. I expect the 10A is better suited for the full 300g charge.

Sorry, no Artisan plot this time. I didn't have my laptop with me today.

A general comment on the roaster itself. The air circulation and chaff capture method works great. The highly flammable chaff blows out of the hot drum immediately and rests safely it the capture screen in the back near the fan. This seems to result in much less smoke and less chance of fire compared to my Behmor. It may not have CE approval, but I feel much safer using this roaster than any other I've tried so far. Of course, it is not totally idiot-proof like my Behmor or the Hotop, but then again, idiots who walk away from any roaster should not be roasting.

What is your determination that this equipment is unsafe? Sharp metal edges on housing? Brightly glowing elements that might blind you if you accidentally look at them when they're hot? Sharp point on thermometer probe? Small knobs or parts that could come off and be swallowed by little kids or animals?

oldgearhead Said:

It is my conclusion: 'you pay the money and you get the sticker'.....or in the Queen's English:graft..

Agree there!!

Does everything you, me, or others do, have to have some sort of approval for safety? Is there some safety agency that I don't know about that I need to contact before I get up on an extension ladder I've set up to paint the window trim on my home? My welder is unsafe if I don't use protective clothing and devices while using it. My drill press is unsafe if I try drilling a hole in a small piece of sheet metal I'm holding in my hand. I sure don't have a problem determining at what point something is unsafe and adjusting safety requirements to make it safe, and likely the majority of us have that ability. Apparently, a small coffee roaster may now be considered a hazardous device just for what it does, no matter that it meets current design, construction and operation standards, even if someone somewhere thinks it needs special approval.

I reviewed the Quest webpage and I didn't see any unusual hazards associated with this roaster that would endanger the life or property of the user or anyone else within a mile of it's use that would make me consider it to be a dangerous device any more than other roasters currently in popular use. It certainly appears to be a well designed and constructed roaster, though it's rather light comparing price to capacity. It appears to be a good basic manual drum roaster that would allow unlimited control by an experienced roaster.

So it seems the roaster is still capable of doing 300g, even with what appears to be one heater doing most of the heating. Molly said the heater on the left that burns bright orange is the new heater, and the one on the right that glows only barely visible red (even at 10A and 1200W), is the older original heater type (although they both look identical).

My only concern now is the durability of the left heater. If I'm not mistaken, the heater life is related to how bright it glows, so am I going to need to be replacing the left side heater only in 100 roasts? Also, the outer left side shell of the roaster is only 1/2" or so away from the super heater. Is it going to end up turning locally blue from all the left side heat?

Time will tell I guess.

I'm still not sure if I can simply get 2 right side heaters if I don't like the new arrangement. I'll try asking Molly in a few weeks. (I don't want to ask her too many questions this week. Yes....I'm annoying that way :-).

Seems that way. Do you think the right heater kicks in and heats more as you get closer to 10A? The left heater seems pretty bright orange, even at 8A. But the right heater only starts glowing red above 8A it appears and never gets orange, even at 11A.

I would not be so concerned about the heaters, my HotTop heater glowed red plenty for the first couple of years pushing it with large batches. The element was replaced after 300 roasts, it still worked fine although it needed to be bent back into shape a few times from warping. Is there a reason you think a element glowing red reduces its life? in my mind every electric element for a home stove broiler would need replacing often if this was the case.

I personally think you have an improvement over the two identical elements, I believe in the other thread you already thought this through. Scorching beans is a problem with drum roaster and this design seems to help with the problem of heating the drum to much before surface contact with the beans there is plenty of roast guidelines for the quest at HB and once you find the offset for their posted amperage to your setup you should be able to convert your settings with little problem and soon enough most will probably convert to the higher wattage element. All else fails you can replace the element with the lower wattage element and have what everyone else has.

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